Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Betty and I started telling our families that what we had planned did not happen, since they were the only people at that point who knew what we were up to. Very few people knew what was going on since we were at such an early stage. We just figured it was not meant to be and that we would go back to our lives as we knew them, pre-surrogacy stuff.

In May of 2008, Betty and I were in a Pasadena restaurant with my brother Pablo, our sis-in-law Sonia, and our nephew Gabriel eating pizza. After we were done, Pablo and Sonia told us that they had been thinking about surrogacy even before Clara offered, but Clara had offered before they had a chance to. They too did the incredible ... Sonia offered to be our gestational surrogate!Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know too many people that have experienced this scenario. Three different women (and their families, of course) had at this point offered to give us an incredibly generous gift, and at no point did we ever ask anyone to do this for us. Betty and I have always felt deeply blessed, but this was quite unbelievable to us. We kind of looked at each other, made sure that Pablo and Sonia were ready for what was coming, and then accepted gratefully. Very gratefully! Just as we were before, we were (and are) deeply humbled by the gift that we have been given. It is always deeply inspiring and encouraging to me when people act selflessly, in any set of circumstances, because of how seldomly such acts occur. When people are willing to make huge sacrifices for one another and I am witness to such acts, it always stops me in my tracks and leaves me silent (those of you who know me know that this is an extreme rarity). Imagine how much more stunning it was when Betty and I became the recipients of such an act of love! Okay, so back to our story...

Since Betty and I are not spring chickens (does anyone even use that expression anymore?), we had to hit the ground running. Our window of opportunity was closing, and fast!